Category: Pastors’ Column

Pastors, especially interim ones like me, step into stories that began long before they arrived in a congregation and will continue to be told long after they leave. Why things are done in an idiosyncratic way, why certain people or committees are at odds, or the fabled origins of a beloved tradition are common stories pastors must navigate. Of course, this can be challenging, but other times, it is a delight to step into a story that started before you and will continue long after you. The annual youth Thanksgiving Pancake Breakfast, occurring next Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, from 8:30-11:30 a.m. in Congregational Hall, is one such delightful story.

I have heard the breakfast described as a homecoming of sorts, where the kids whom we have sent off into the world return home as young adults or where families that have moved away return to see old friends. One colleague told me the breakfast pretty much runs itself as people of all ages pitch in to decorate, cook, eat (that part is important), wash dishes, and clean up.

We’re heading into a season that, for many of us, is a time of joy. For others, it is a season of dread that we’re just trying to survive. As relationships change or loved ones pass away, traditions that were once delightful become melancholy. Likewise, sad stories we didn’t realize were keeping us stuck can be told in new ways to become a source of new life and hope.

Whatever else Thanksgiving looks like for you, joyful or otherwise, I hope you start your day by joining us in telling the longstanding and delightful story of the Thanksgiving Pancake Breakfast. Bring a friend. Sign up to volunteer by clicking here. Throw caution to the wind and go for the chocolate chip pancakes. By the way, this event has morphed from fundraiser into funraiser recently… and that’s a tradition I wouldn’t mind changing! Please consider donating beyond the $5/person or $20/family to support the Youth Ministry at BMPC.

This year, I’m thankful to be part of the story being told at BMPC. I look forward to seeing you next Thursday.

This week, every year for the past ten years, I have written to the church about the virtue of alternative giving at Christmas. I have told you that the piles of physical gifts in our house have continued to shrink. I have shared how I use gifts given through AGM to teach my friends and family about the mission work of BMPC. I have even confessed how I send fewer and fewer Christmas cards each year, but when I do, they no longer have baby pictures but AGM insert cards stuffed in them. But this year, I want to highlight something completely different regarding the BMPC Advent Gift Market.

First, I want to celebrate what is again an extraordinary and compelling AGM catalog packed with longstanding partners in mission, relevant organizations working to bring compassion and justice in the world, and gifts that support the actual work that BMPC members are doing in mission in our local community. Each gift is represented in a small card you can insert in your Christmas Cards, holiday hostess gifts, and packages wrapped under the tree.

But this year, I also want to share a growing trend we have seen at the Advent Gift Market in the past few years.

While giving to AGM is higher than ever – last year’s donations totaled over $56,000 – the number of people asking for those small “insert” cards essential to the alternative gift process continues to decline.

That is because an increasing number of members of our congregation and our larger community are using the Advent Gift Market to make generous charitable donations at the end of the year. The donors with whom I have spoken share how much they value using the AGM catalog to learn about the church’s priorities and partnerships in mission and as a guide for their end-of-year charitable donations.

I couldn’t be more thrilled with this development. To me, it is a sign that, in addition to folks giving generously through their pledges and offerings throughout the year to support the wide work of our congregation in the community and the world, when members look to give beyond the church, they still look to the church to help them connect with often small but vital organizations making a difference in a hurting world.

I encourage you to shop this Sunday and throughout Advent, keeping in mind this “alternative” way of giving through the Advent Gift Market. The opening event will take place in Congregational Hall this Sunday following worship, where Councils, Committees, and even representatives from partner organizations will be available to chat. However, you can also shop online today at www.BrynMawrAGM.com.

I will never stop being moved by this congregation’s generosity. It is a privilege to help create resources that support you all in your generosity. I hope that this year’s AGM catalog will encourage you to be more generous than ever this Christmas season.

Grace and peace to you from God and our Redeemer Jesus Christ in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

This has been a difficult election season during a time of great division in our country and community. Our families and church family have been anxious and conflicted. This fall, the church has hosted many gatherings to help us consider and claim our values as Christians and as citizens. Through preaching and prayer in worship, classes, special programming, and a Community Forum focused on political polarization, BMPC has encouraged engagement in political dialogue with those of differing perspectives and voting responsibly according to our Christian values and as Presbyterians who affirm the basic tenet of Reformed theology that “God alone is Lord of the conscience.”

Some in our communion are glad the election is over, are relieved that so many outcomes have swung in the Republicans’ direction, and are ready to embrace whatever a second Donald Trump presidency will bring. Others have been repelled by the first Trump presidency and the January 6th insurrection; the xenophobic, violent, and misogynistic rhetoric and mistruths heard at so many of his rallies; the rollback of women’s agency over healthcare decisions; and fear of what may be over the horizon. These folks have shared they find themselves shocked, grieving, and traumatized.

Whether you are relieved or despondent, you are not alone. Many pundits are out there trying to put this election in historical perspective as we wrestle with its outcomes. Our job as members of the church is to take the long view historically and remember that the community of God’s faithful has almost always existed in a dangerous and fraught political climate. Those little tribes of Abraham and Sarah’s descendants were often defeated and exiled under brutal conditions. The prophets summoned them to hope and trust that God was doing a new thing. The Gospels and Epistles show us how the early church was divided and persecuted by the powerful political forces of the Roman Empire. Followers of Christ were urged to live faithfully against the odds, upheld by God’s justice, faithfulness, goodness, and mercy. In this moment, we are still called to put on the armor of light, to reject the power of evil in the world, and to love God by loving and serving one another and those in need.

Our Book of Common Worship has a prayer for a nation in crisis that reads:

God of ages, in your sight, nations rise and fall and pass through times of peril. Now, when our land is troubled, be near to judge and save. May leaders be led by your wisdom; may they search your will and see it clearly. If we have turned from your way, help us to reverse our ways and repent. Give us your light and your truth to guide us; through Jesus Christ, who reigns over the world.

May this time-honored prayer guide our prayers and actions. As we step into the future together, may we heed the call of the prophet to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God, and the call of Christ to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Regardless of one’s stage in life, certain dates are remembered. A child’s birthday, a couple’s first date, the birthday of a beloved pet, perhaps the date you were offered your dream job, and, of course, wedding anniversaries! For most of us, those landmark dates also include the date a loved one passed from this life to the next. While birthdays are typically observed in a group with much festivity, dates such as a spouse, parent, or child’s passing are typically observed with some solitary reflection. I have lived long enough to now observe many such dates –my brother and mother, numerous choir members, and countless beloved members of BMPC. Even with the passage of time, these observances are difficult.

With this coming Sunday’s observance of All Saints Day, the BMPC congregation and friends in the community will be given the privilege of coming together as a very large family to remember our loved ones, especially those who have left this earth during the past year. During this most moving service of the year, the choir will offer one of the most beautiful choral works of the 20th century, Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem. Composed in 1947, Duruflé’s setting is perhaps the most moving of all settings of the Requiem. It has none of the bombast of Verdi’s or Berlioz’s settings. Like Fauré’s setting, this is a Requiem filled with peace and hope. Unique to Duruflé, he based much of the material in his Requiem on Gregorian chant and the Gregorian Mass for the Dead.

Duruflé’s masterpiece, presented along with Dr. Norfleet’s sermon, the Lord’s Supper, the reading of the names of those members who have died this past year, and the tolling of the carillon, will demonstrate the church at work as an agent of comfort and peace, and a powerful witness to Christ’s Resurrection.

Through the years, I’ve been blessed by friendships with several clergy mentors, from whom I have learned many of those churchy things that don’t get taught in seminary. Among them, the best teacher for stewardship was the late K.C. Ptomey, who chose autumn as the season to retire so he could preach through yet another Stewardship Season at his beloved Westminster Presbyterian Church in Nashville. Nearing the end of a long and distinguished career in ministry, K.C. enjoyed being plain-spoken and honest about the need for his congregation to support the church with their financial resources.

After 41 annual pledge drives and more than a few capital campaigns, K.C. said, “I’ve seen everything… house-to-house calls, letters, telephone campaigns, challenges to tithe, banners, posters, fancy stationery, charts, graphs, movies, skits, Bible studies, potluck suppers, lunches, breakfasts, dessert parties, efforts to impart guilt, promises of eternal bliss, threats of hell-fire and damnation. I’ve seen it all. I’ve done it all.”

K.C said, “But what a lifetime of ministry has finally taught me is that generosity simply comes out of people who have experienced the love of God,

the unmerited grace and goodness of the living God, which is something we can never earn, which is always out of proportion to what we deserve. Awareness, deep awareness of the abundant and undeserved goodness of God, is the only thing I know of that can elicit abounding generosity. Guilt, slick stewardship messages, and charts won’t do it. But awareness, deep awareness, of the abundant and undeserved goodness of God – that will do it.”

I invite you to prepare for this coming Sunday’s Stewardship Dedication by considering your awareness of God’s goodness and grace. Take a prayerful inventory of your depth of gratitude for God’s gifts of beauty, of community, and of our church family. Ponder our stewardship theme, Bryn Mawr Gives Light, and think about how the church has been a light for you and how your light has shone through the ministries of BMPC.

Filling out a pledge card and making a regular financial commitment to the church is an act of generosity, an expression of gratitude, and a sign of deep awareness that everything we have of ultimate value is a gift from God. But before you do, I suggest you pause and think about God’s gifts of life and light and then make your commitment out of deep awareness.

“It will be better than Gordon Ramsey’s!” The statement was definitive and expressed a level of confidence I would not usually extend to bulk garlic powder, dried parsley, onion salt, and plain butter. However, with the energy that can only come from 4th and 5th-grade workers, the ingredients combined into what became incredible garlic butter. Similarly, ingredients were layered to create trays of lasagna, and the cookie dough was measured to fill four cookie sheets with neat round balls, just waiting to be baked.

Last Sunday, our children prepared a meal for their neighbors. Over the past few years, we have had the opportunity to build a strong relationship with the Ardmore Food Pantry. We have collected food, students have gone to Saint Mary’s Church to sort and bag, and we have prayed for and talked about the work they are doing to make sure our neighbors have good food to eat. Last week, we stepped into a new dimension of our partnership—making a meal.

While the Ardmore Food Pantry provides groceries for neighbors facing food insecurity, Director Beth Tiewater recognized the compounding hunger for community and respite. On Monday nights, while clients wait, a simple meal is provided. As a church, we’ve committed to help support this emerging ministry by providing one meal a month. Our first two meals were successful. The food was well received, and it was powerful to see people connecting around tables, taking deep breaths at the end of a long day, and sharing a meal together.

Our students are already planning the next meal to serve on November 11. There’s a big push for brownies over cookies and a question: can we find a way to make fried chicken? With each idea shared, with every dish prepped, and with each piece of garlic bread, our students are living out their faith: Loving God and loving neighbor and pouring that love into everything they do.

Here are ways you can help!

Support On-Going Food Collections: In the education building, we focus on one food category a month. This month is canned veggies, beans, and fruit. Our goal is to collect 75 cans.

Help with one of the Meal Preps: Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you would like to volunteer the weeks when Sunday school classes prepare meals.

Come and hear from Beth Tiewater, Director of AFP, on Sunday, November 10, at 11:15 a.m. in the Fullerton Room.

Get Ready to Volunteer! Starting in February, this will be an opportunity open to the whole church. Be on the lookout for how to sign up and get involved.

One of my favorite things I get to do here at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian is to join the Deacons’ Helping Hands team as they are stationed in front of the sanctuary to greet and assist folks coming to worship. It is not easy for some to get from the circle drive and navigate their way into the sanctuary to find their pew. The Helping Hands team is there to offer some joyful assistance, and Sunday by Sunday, they get to have brief conversations with some of our older members who are delighted to be coming to worship even with the challenges they face.

Every two years, we honor those who have been members of BMPC for fifty years or more. We will do that this Sunday at a luncheon following the 10 a.m. worship service. There are 183 BMPCers who have been members for five decades or more. Not all of them will be able to attend the luncheon this Sunday, but we celebrate every one of them!

Think about what was happening in 1974, fifty years ago. Our country was in the midst of the Watergate crisis, which resulted in the first U. S. President ever to resign. The last troops who had fought in Vietnam had just recently come home, although the peace treaties would not be finished until 1975. A show called ‘Happy Days’ debuted on television, and we were finding out who ‘the Fonz’ was. ‘The Sting’ won Best Picture that year. The top hit on the radio was ‘The Way We Were’ by Barbra Streisand. In sports, the Flyers won their first Stanley Cup, and Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record.

Bryn Mawr Presbyterian had just finished celebrating its centennial observances. David Watermulder was Senior Pastor, but some of our long-term members had joined when Rex Clements was in service here. These members have been supporting this congregation for more than 2600 Sundays. The two main Presbyterian denominations (the old southern and northern churches) would not even become the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) until 1983. These long-term members remained steadfast even when there were denominational, presbytery, and congregational controversies. There were economic ups and downs along the way. They supported plenty of stewardship and capital campaigns. They maintained and built our extraordinary mission, educational, and music programming by which we are blessed today. Many of them served on multiple committees and/or as officers. Think about how many times they took baptismal vows on behalf of those who were experiencing God’s grace being poured out upon them! They broke bread and shared the cup sacramentally and socially. And here is a great thing – they are still doing it, even if some can only attend virtually instead of in person.

I draw inspiration from these 50-plus-year folks for their faithful dedication. I hope all our members will think about how to live out faithfulness to the ministry of Jesus Christ in this place as we make our stewardship pledges, volunteer for a variety of ministry positions, and try to be an example for those younger ones who will still be here when BMPC celebrates its bi-centennial 49 years from now.

The feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi officially takes place on the 4th of October. Here at BMPC, we observe it on the first Sunday of October. Traditionally, Presbyterians are not in the business of celebrating too many saints. However, BMPC has always had a fondness for Saint Francis, even going so far as to place him in the stained glass of our chapel windows. The image is familiar–a simple man, tonsured, dressed in plain brown robes, and surrounded by animals. This Sunday at 4:00 p.m., dogs, cats, lizards, and more will pass by his window on their way to the Blessing of the Animals on the front lawn of the Education Building. All animals are welcome, though our local groundhogs and garden snakes tend to avoid the crowds. Together, we will praise God and give thanks for the creatures of God’s good earth, but there is more to Saint Francis’ story and more to Sunday’s observations.

The story of Saint Francis includes a moment when he makes peace with a wolf and the town of Gubbio. Legend has it that Francis makes peace by first invoking the name of Jesus and then simply speaking to the wolf, saying, “The whole town is complaining about you, but I want to make peace between you and the people.” Francis promises the wolf that he will be given food so he will never again be hungry, and in turn, “Brother Wolf” promises never to harm another person or animal. The town of Gubbio and the wolf are fundamentally changed. The wolf no longer fears hunger, and the town no longer fears the wolf. They are both freed.

It is not lost on this children’s pastor that while the story’s details change with each telling, the wolf is always called brother. Saint Francis addresses him like a brother in a holy order or a member of one’s family. The wolf is not dangerous or awful, and though he tends to eat the villager’s sheep, the wolf is still Francis’ brother.

The short story models the complex work of peacemaking: clear communication, honoring connections, recognizing the needs of both parties and seeking a shared solution. Unlike Francis, we cannot speak to our animal neighbors and ask the wasps to “move along” or the local squirrels to stop stealing carefully planted bulbs. Our human neighbors might balk if we shout the name of Jesus every time we approach. Even with our less-than-saintly limitations, I wonder if we should be a little more like Francis, willing to walk into the woods and seek peace.

On Sunday, we will hold two celebrations. Yes, there will be the blessing of the animals in the afternoon, but during morning worship, we will observe World Communion Sunday, a tradition that dates back to 1933 in Pittsburgh. This day, first nationally observed in 1940, is a powerful reminder of our connection to God’s people all around the world. Imagine, at the outbreak of World War II, the church paused and called nations at war “brother and sister,” remembering our connections as bread was broken and the cup was shared, an act of peace in the face of war.

Sharing communion and blessing animals are not radical acts, but they are hopeful ones. They are actions that model restoration in the face of so much destruction and sorrow. They are actions that reconnect us to one another and to God’s creation. They are actions that invite us to pause, call each other family, and rest in the promise of belonging and blessing that God extends to all.

The upcoming November election is a critical moment of decision in our national history. The Community Forum, free and open to the public, is an important programmatic offering for our church and community this coming Monday night, September 30, at 7:00 pm in the Sanctuary. Dr. Robert Talisse, Philosophy Professor at Vanderbilt University, will address “Our Polarization Problem.”

One of the Presbyterian Church’s founding theological affirmations is unwavering confidence in God’s sovereignty. The living God is the creator of heaven and earth who maintains all things in their being and governs them by divine will, energy, force, and life. As people of God, we are called to exercise our faith in every aspect of our lives and follow Christ into the world to further God’s love, peace, and justice. This is a political calling.

When folks tell us pastors the church should stay out of politics, I always want to say, have you ever read Jesus’ first sermon? The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4:18-19) You cannot get any more political than that! We live as disciples of Christ in and for the world.

That does not mean we all agree about political matters. Another tenant of our faith is that “God alone is Lord of the conscience,” and we are free to think differently about political matters. In community, we come together, engage in respective conversations from varying points of view, and together seek to better understand the character of God and how best to address issues pertaining to the common good and get to work for the sake of the gospel. Christians must address morality and justice in political spheres, but it is not the church’s job to endorse a particular party or politician.

I imagine we can all agree that political discourse has become increasingly hostile, causing great social schisms in families, among neighbors, and even within the church. Dr. Talisse argues that democracy is rooted in the idea of equality, writing, “Although democracy often proceeds by a kind of combat, we keep the temperature low by acknowledging that beneath it all, we remain one another’s equals… We owe it to one another to uphold this aspiration.”

Join us for Monday’s Community Forum as we seek to uphold this aspiration. The coming election is hugely consequential. We owe it to one another to consider how we move forward civilly, respectfully, and peaceably without giving up our strong, faith-based opinions about how our politics are connected to our calling as disciples of Jesus Christ.

One of my favorite new fall traditions here at BMPC is our big September food drive. Modeled after our longstanding annual Souper Bowl of Caring collection that takes place in February, we all have the opportunity in the fall to fill the Narthex on a Sunday morning with donations of non-perishable items that are whisked away to our local food pantries supporting them in supporting their communities.

This summer, the church has been phenomenal in bringing in non-perishable items each week as our local pantries here in Lower Merion have had the number of guests double this season.

This Sunday, September 22, all the donations you bring to church will be taken a little further away to four of our sister Presbyterian Churches who run food pantries out of their buildings.

West Kensington Ministry started a food program during the pandemic as the community’s needs, especially those of newly arrived immigrant families, became clear.

New River Presbyterian Church in West Philadelphia runs one of the smallest pantries we support. It is available to folks in their neighborhood with nowhere else to turn for that bag of groceries that will get them through the week.

Deacon Grace Marable founded and continues to run the pantry out of Bethel Presbyterian Church in North Philadelphia. The pantry gives away food to around 600 people per month and receives its most significant financial and food donations from BMPC.

TM Thomas Presbyterian Church serves a hot meal to around 200 people each month, and when they have the resources, they always send guests away with a bag of non-perishables to take home with them.

Each bag of food, cereal box, can of soup, and tin of tuna brought to church this Sunday will make a difference in the lives of families connected to our partners. We are deeply grateful for your generosity and your ongoing commitment to fighting hunger in Greater Philadelphia.

Recommended donations include cold cereals, spaghetti sauce, canned meals, soups (particularly hearty ones), peanut butter, jelly, canned tuna and chicken, canned fruit or vegetables, canned beans, applesauce, dry pasta, macaroni and cheese, crackers, instant oatmeal (packets), granola bars, and single-serving snacks.